Despite the fact that the WCNP brochure (which they still hand out at the gate ) lists the summer gate opening time as 06h30 -- and this website lists it as 06h00 -- in fact the park's gate opening time has been changed and is now 07h00 year round.

I visited the park yesterday and arrived at the gate before 06h30. It was only by chance that the gate guard happened to arrive early and kindly took pity on me and allowed me in at 06h30. Otherwise I would have had a wait of nearly an hour before the current -- UNpublicised -- gate opening.

WCNP is a favourite with me. It is a particularly good park if you are interested in birds, as you will have many good sightings, particularly of the endangered African oystercatcher at Tsaarsbank, where there is also a dramatic shipwreck, very visible from the picnic site, and you can walk down the beach there to get a closer view.

In July you may be lucky and already have some of the area wildflowers in bloom and that can be very special. Indeed, the local flora on the West Coast is very special indeed.

You will usually see bontebok in WCNP and if you're lucky, you might also see some of the other park antelope -- steenbok, eland, springbok -- or other small mammals, but they can be very shy. However, it's a beautiful park and IMO well worth a visit. I spent 8+ hours there this past Wednesday.

There is also an excellent restaurant and visitor centre at Geelbek, which is a beautiful old house, and two birds hides -- although reaching the hides requires quite a long walk.

and two birds hides -- although reaching the hides requires quite a long walk.

I seem to think that there are 3 bird hides that one can visit from the restaurant. I discovered another one on a geocaching trip ...but it was a even further walk from the restaurant....through very long grass. It didn't look like this hide has been visited much...but there was an awesome view....quite a few birds around as well !!!!

You can also phone the WCNP or Langebaan information centre in this regard - just before visiting the WCNP 2 get certainty on this. They can assist you with other usefull information pertaing 2 the PARK as well.

If y'r a birder - there are 4 birdinghides in the WCNP:2 @ GEELBEK1 @ approximately 500m from GEELBEK; and 1 @ SEEBERG.

arks wrote:I visited the park yesterday and arrived at the gate before 06h30. It was only by chance that the gate guard happened to arrive early and kindly took pity on me and allowed me in at 06h30. Otherwise I would have had a wait of nearly an hour before the current -- UNpublicised -- gate opening.

This is interesting as the new gate opening times were indeed advertised by the WCNP in regional and local media. They really did their bit to keep tourists informed

However, gaining entrance to a national park before the official opening time, is unaceptable as there are reasons for specific opening times e.g. translocation operations etc. You would have needed special authorization/obtaining a permit/pass for this.

Please PM me the details of the time of entrance and SANP official who had, without permission, allowed you to enter the park. Rules are rules, and must be accepted by all as they have been implemented for a reason. The rule has been broken when you were allowed entrance to this park in unoffical time and I would like to take this serious offence up with the applicable management.

I have noticed that my post has been removed from this thread...Why ???????Arks mentioned in her post that there were two bird hides ... I thought there might be three !!!!!Is there a problem with that ???????

annalie wrote:However, gaining entrance to a national park before the official opening time, is unaceptable as there are reasons for specific opening times e.g. translocation operations etc. You would have needed special authorization/obtaining a permit/pass for this.